That's more like it

When Jack first started preschool, I had almost daily chats with his teacher about how he was doing.  She always raved about him, and even at our parent-teacher conference she told me what a pleasure he was to have in her class.  This might sound a little mean, but my first reaction was honestly, "Really? Jack??"  I certainly wasn't seeing much of this exemplary behavior at home.  She told me that my reaction wasn't unusual, that sometimes kids will hold it all in and be perfect at school and then really just let it go when they are at home with people they feel comfortable with.  I'll admit that I didn't love that, but it made me feel good that at least Jack could keep it together while he's in someone else's care.

Fast forward to last week.  The kids had just spent a week with their dad's family away from me.  By all accounts, they were amazing.  I feel so proud of them for that.

But their first week back,  back to our "regular lives" as Jack said, my kids were really giving me a run for my money. I felt pretty bad about it.  I was really missing them while they were gone.  But they hadn't even been back a couple of days when I was screaming at them silently in my head, "GO AWAY!"

I will admit, some of the irritation had to do with the fact that I was not getting the same amount of sleep I was when they were away.  Violet had been getting up too early for my taste.  That week, she'd usually call for me around 6:30 and then resist going back to sleep, even though I tried to lay her back down in bed with me.  Also, we had Jack in vacation Bible school that week, so we were back to being tied to an early morning schedule. 

But it was more than that.  Jack in particular was just incredibly argumentative and complaining.  It seemed like every other conversation we had was him contradicting me about something ridiculous.  I remember, as a child, I'd get so exasperated when my parents would brook no argument when I "clearly" knew better.  As a parent, I now have new-found sympathy for them.  There is no way that a five-year-old is going to know better than his mother what level of swim class to register him for or whether his Bible school is going to let him wear flip flops.  For example.

He'd also developed the absolutely unacceptable habit of expecting that we will buy him something every time we go somewhere.  I went to a local amusement park with him, and he kept asking me if I would buy him something, what did he need to do to make me want to buy him something, his friend's mom bought him something, why couldn't he get something too??  At one point, he actually asked, "Why, if I'm being good, won't you buy me something?"

I was furious when I heard that. I gave him a good talking-to about how a) he pretty much already has more stuff than anyone in the entire world; b) going to this amusement park really should be treat enough; and c) if it isn't enough, we just don't need to go again.

Thankfully, this reacclimation period was short.  During the week that just ended, I felt my kids were truly back to being their sweet and fun selves.  Violet has pushed back her morning wake-up time by quite a lot.  I've been pleasantly surprised almost every day this week to wake up with her and find that it's after 8:30.  We didn't have to wake up early for VBS and Jack had his much-anticipated Star Wars Lego camp.  It was the perfect schedule, because it went from 1 to 4 in the afternoon.  I dropped Jack and came home and put Violet down for her nap.

Jack LOVED the camp.  He had so much fun building Star Wars themed projects.  It also helped that he had two friends there with him.  They built droids and X-wing fighters and catapults and turrets and all sorts of things it would never even occur to me to attempt.  Some of the projects were motorized, and they hooked them up to batteries to make them go.  It's such a great feeling as a parent when your child is so happy and grateful for something that you hoped they would like, when they understand that you went out of your way to do something special for them.  On the last day, Jack told me, "Thank you for sending me to this camp."  My one regret is that the camp organizers didn't take pictures of the kids' projects, since they weren't allowed to bring them home.

Next week, we are blissfully free of any scheduled activities.  I go back and forth between enjoying having nothing I have to do and feeling like I ought to give the kids a little more structure to their day.  It's nice that I have the option to do both.  I'm trying to remember to cherish this last summer before Jack starts school full-time.  It's going by so fast.